This is a question that recently occurred to me about the original movie.

Although the effects for the first film look horrendously outdated by today's standards they were however cutting-edge in 1982.However, looking back it is amazing just how quickly computer graphics evolved in such a short time.   

In 1984 they released The Last Starfighter which again used pioneering CG effects.
But here's the thing-in just 2 years they went from being the brightly coloured shapes and textures of Tron to a slightly more detailed and rendered style, with a bit more emphasis of shading and texture.

Then in 1985 they released Young Sherlock Holmes, which featured an imaginative sequence of a stained-glass character coming to life.
And the year after that there was Flight of the Navigator which featured an alien craft with a silver mirrored surface again done with computers.
 
The point I'm making is this-in just about 4 years after the first film CGI had evolved to a point where effects for films like Flight of the Navigator could be rendered with such a realistic feel, a long way from the basic geometric shapes of the first Tron film.
So the question I ask is this-exactly how much of the artistic creativity of the first film was down to the limitations of computer power in 1982 or was the visual style of the film done deliberately to cash-in on the video games department that they knew the youngsters watching the film would be interested in at the time?

Or to put it another way-if they had waited just a few more years instead of 1982 would the CG effects have improved to a point that the detailing and rendering would create a much deeper, more realistic environment?